Reviews: Clark - 'Iradelphic', The destroyers - 'Hole in the universe'

So just to be clear, I havent had massive chances to listen to both of these albums, but certainly heard enough to form some kind of opinion of them.

Ill start with Iradelphic by Clark. I'd been kept waiting in suspense for this album for a while now, and I knew it was going to have a slightly more mature finished sound to it, but wasn't sure if that was going to be a good thing or not.

At first I have to say I wasn't that stoked, but the album is certainly a grower, and I think it will be one that I listen to for a long time, instead of just loving it hard for a short period of time, and then forgetting all about it.

Most of the tunes are well programmed instrumentals, using a massive variety of diverse sounds. I have to be honest, it doesn't feel like much happens until the 3 pining tracks (numbers 9,10,11) which as far as I'm concerned are absolutely brilliant.

What I would say about this album, is dont listen to it expect it to make you jump up and down with excitement, it wont at first, but the more you listen to more you notice, if you're a fan of electronica, you could certainly do a lot worse than adding this into your collection, but its not a 'dance' album.

Secondly I'm going to move onto The Destroyers (the opposite end of the musical spectrum). After discovering The Destroyers 2 years ago at Shambala, I've loved them and their unique blend of folksy klezmer mashup brought together by something like twelve instramentalists and one nutty irish singer who tells you obscure tales of woe over the music.

I really loved their first album, it was an interesting mix of ideas and certainly caught my imagination, the new album 'Hole in the universe' stays faithful to the style they developed in the first ('Out of Babel'), but adds new elements to it, a first for them is the inclusion of some electric guitar sounds and a female opera singer.

My favourite track on the album is probably 'Red Tape' which talks about some of the difficulties of getting things done in todays political climate, but start to finish this album is a jump up klezmer smash up, and certainly will be bring me musical joy for a while now. If you haven't The Destroyers, go seem them live, they'll be brilliant fun even if the music isn't to your taste. Is the music is to your taste, buy the albums, they're brilliant!